Because @@FETCH_STATUS is global to all cursors on a connection, use @@FETCH_STATUS carefully. After a FETCH statement is executed, the test for @@FETCH_STATUS must occur before any other FETCH statement is executed against another cursor. The value of @@FETCH_STATUS is undefined before any fetches have occurred on the connection.

For example, a user executes a FETCH statement from one cursor, and then calls a stored procedure that opens and processes the results from another cursor. When control is returned from the called stored procedure, @@FETCH_STATUS reflects the last FETCH executed in the stored procedure, not the FETCH statement executed before the stored procedure is called.

To retrieve the last fetch status of a specific cursor, query the fetch_status column of the sys.dm_exec_cursors dynamic management function.

DECLARE Employee_Cursor CURSOR FOR
SELECT EmployeeID, Title FROM AdventureWorks.HumanResources.Employee;
OPEN Employee_Cursor;
FETCH NEXT FROM Employee_Cursor;
WHILE @@FETCH_STATUS = 0
BEGIN
FETCH NEXT FROM Employee_Cursor;
END;
CLOSE Employee_Cursor;
DEALLOCATE Employee_Cursor;
GO